Chopin' Down Trees

Where you are standing right now, a tree may have been standing there at one point in time. Have you ever gone to a park in your town before and seen all the tall growing trees? Odds are those trees used to have a lot more neighbors. See, the thing is, where ever humans settle down, they take up room and trees can get in the way of that. Humans need a lot of room where ever they go. Think about places you go through out the week. For example, like the grocery store, or the bank, or even school. You need those places around you in order to live and grow up. Sadly, in order to have all those necessities we need to clear trees and use land to do so.

                               What is Deforestation?

People cut down trees for multiple reasons, but they do so to make use of the land. This process is known as deforestation. Some people will clear the trees just for the trees themselves while others will use the land underneath the forest for other purposes. Pennsylvania used to be completely covered in forest until the number of people here started to increase and cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia started to expand. Most likely, there was a forest where your house sits now,whether you live in the country, a town, or a city.  

Building Homes

Have you ever looked around your house and saw a little patch of trees or a mountain along the edge of town? If so, then your house was probably a factor of deforestation. Trees are cut down all the time to make room for buildings and areas for people to live. Where ever you live right now there probably use to be a forest there seeing as how Pennsylvania use to be covered in forests. They used this land for houses and other living areas like developments. The woods are a great spot to put homes because it provides scenery and shade for a house, making it more enjoyable. Who doesn't like a couple trees to climb in the back yard or trees to hang tire swings off of? The number of people in the world keeps growing so we continuously need to make room for them. Therefore we continue to expand and build new homes and developments to fit everybody in need of a home.

Farming Land

Another reason for deforestation is for farming. A lot of the food that we eat is farmed and it is important that we keep our growing population fed. However, there is not enough land to provide food for all the people. So forest are cleared to provide room for farms to grow crops and other resources that you see in the grocery store. Trees get cut down to make room for huge farm lands to grow these crops, and the soil from the forest is very good and healthy for those crops. Farmers also need lots of room to raise livestock like chickens and cows. If you like eggs for breakfast and a glass of milk, then you need room to raise the livestock. Also, with this fertile soil, it can be used to grow resources like Palm trees that produce palm oil. Palm trees grow in very exotic places usually, but the soil of a forest can provide a palm tree with just enough nutrition to grow. These farm lands are needed to provide us with food and resources we need to survive.

Going to the Market

Of course, we need room for our grocery stores like Weis and other stores like Toys R Us. Construction of road ways and buildings can be a huge cause of deforestation. Anything from huge skyscrapers in big cities to little sub shops in Montoursville need room to be built. New buildings are always being built and to do so there must be land cleared. Once you build one store in a certain area it tends to draw more and more stores from all over. There must be a million McDonald's on the planet because they are all over the place where I live. After putting together all the buildings in a town and taking up all that room, there needs to be a road or highway that connects all the towns since we drive in cars rather than swinging from trees like monkeys. Those road ways can be bent but sometimes you cant always avoid a forest of trees.

Cutting Deeper

How many people still cut wood to heat their houses? Well, that wood comes from a tree, and I am sure that the tree needed to be cut down for you to collect firewood. Tree are the number one source for fire wood, in fact, they are the only source. People use wood stoves or pellet stoves that use wood to heat their houses and make campfires out of, along with other products like paper that you use to write on. Wood can also be used to build structures like buildings and bridges. The majority of homes that are being built today are built primarily out of wood. Wood provides the world with a lot of resources that allow us to live.

Lets Talk Trees

Trees get cut down everyday for many different uses and reasons. Trees are cut down to provide room for farming and raising live stock. Also to clear room for houses, buildings, and road ways to be built. There are multiple resources that trees can provide but sadly we need to cut them down to retrieve those resources ranging from fire wood to paper. Lots of those reasons for deforestation are necessities and others, perhaps, could be avoided. However, if there is no need to cut down trees then you should leave them be and instead grab you parents and build a rope swing. 

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